Build your team and product strategy around users (Part II)

This article is Part II of my series of posts about our strategy model (Job-Value map). Refer to Part I for background information and context. In this post, I cover more on how this model is built and used in practice.

The Job-Value model

User Job Steps

As mentioned before, we use a simplified version of “Job Maps”. This version is shown in the figure below.

Our model is used to identify higher level universal steps our users take towards achieving their goals and jobs that they hire our products to do. Note that we do not use this as a replacement for backlog and roadmap building tools such as “User Story Mapping”, the steps in this model are universal and are designed to cover a User Job. Our JTBD inspired model has the following four steps:

1. Define and Prepare

Your users usually decide on what to do before doing it. They might plan for the Job and try to understand how to do it. In many cases, this step is not performed explicitly and can be just a brief moment.

In one end of the spectrum, for example when a user decides to turn on the TV and watch the new Netflix show or watch the football match.

At the other end of the spectrum, it can include what an informed customer or buyer does to buy tickets for a carefully planned trip.

2. Execute

In this step, users take action on the mental or literal plan they have built in the previous step. The “Execute” step is where the users make progress towards the objective they have set for themselves.

The objective can be a simple goal such as getting relaxed by spending time in front of the TV. In this case, execution can mean the act of watching TV and not doing anything else.

The objective can also be spending time on away to relax and disconnect from the stressful life at home. In this case, execution can mean buying tickets and planning all accommodation.

3. Analyze

Not all users explicitly “Analyze” the performance of their progress. The analysis can happen as thinking if their like using (in C. Christensen’s language “hiring “) your product. It can also happen as the quantitative results of their progress towards their goal.

For example, a user might find the music they listen to, useful and motivational for his/her workout session and deem that session successful.

A user who wants to use your product to run a marketing campaign will look at the effectiveness of your product and how long does it take to setup his/her campaign.

4. Conclude

In the “Conclude” step, users either continue hiring a product or fire it. The conclusion step is done according to the performance of the product in helping the user in making progress. They also finish the job or move to another iteration of the same job.

Product Value Chain

We have also designed a layered value chain model that describes the different levels in which our internal or external products are managed. The value chain for each product or organization might differ, and you should try to map your layers and build your value chain based on your own needs.

This value chain has the following layers:

1. User Layer

This layer is where the actual user interaction happens. The User Job Steps, briefly define how the user interacts with the final product and how the user goal is achieved. The components in the “User” layer are built to ensure all aspects of your user’s JTBD are covered. Ideally, each of the “User Job Steps “ in the job map should at least have a component that ensures success in that step.

The “User Layer” is the only layer that should exist in every product and inform the requirements for building the layers below it.

There are many ways to assign components of your product portfolio to each step. For example, in an entertainment product, you can have a component associated with the definition and prepare step that tried to understand user behavior and predict when to trigger them with relevant notifications. Or a component that sends recommendations and notifications based on the user taste.

In Part III, I will discuss the practical goals and details of each step and the strategies for each step in more detail.

2. Core Layer

This layer usually includes product or components that are more aggregated than the infrastructure layer. These products are built to span across multiple user steps and be less opinionated about the end user. The role of this layer is to enable the layer above it to deliver its function more efficiently.

In many cases, especially in smaller less complicated end products the “Core Layer” might not exist. The need for having such layer becomes evident when the product and the team grow and more complexity appears in how it operates. The need for breaking things down into smaller chunks can be a strong motivation for such layer.

3. Infrastructure Layer

The infrastructure layer provides the basic building blocks and components that are least visible to the users. This layer is the should be viewed as given by the layers above it. Infrastructure in our context does not include the commoditised infrastructure that is available to every product (e.g. anything provides by AWS or GCP). It includes products and components that enable a chain-link effect, in your product strategy. These are very basic low-level components that are unique to your product’s needs and are built to be as generic as possible.

As with the “Core Layer”, the “Infrastructure Layer” might not exist in the early stages or smaller products but as the need for more efficient operations of a product arises such horizontal needs appear in your organization.

The Two-dimensional Job-Value map

We use the Value Chain and Job Map as the dimensions in a two-dimensional strategy model that can visualize and inform strategy. The figure below shows our two-dimensional map for strategy, for the sake of simplicity we call this model the Job-Value Map.

“A Job-Value Map is a visualization of Users’ Jobs To Be Done and your Product Value Chain in support of those jobs. It helps you understand, and strategize with the user at the center of your model. “

The goal for this visualization is to ensure that all of the components in your product strategy focus on enabling the user to “Get The Job Done” effectively, efficiently, and with satisfaction.

You can see in this model that each layer in the value chain might have many components and the components to a higher layer can depend on one or more components in the lower layer. Relationship among components in our model is similar to Value Chain (Wardly) Maps. In Job-Value Maps, the arrows indicate a need that is satisfied by the component at the end of the arrow.

Use Job-Value Maps to inform strategy

You can use the Job-Value Map and model to perform gap analysis, set strategic goals for components, compare your offering with competitors, scenario planning, and organize your team to work on the products that maximize the value delivered to the user.

For example, you can use Job-Mapping to identify a Gap in the “Define and Prepare” step, where there is no strategy for luring users towards your product when they have a “Job To Be Done”.

Principles

An important step after defining your value chain is to define strategic principles for each layer of the value chain as they relate to your Job-Value Map.Here are some of the examples of principles we use for each layer: